North America Adventure

High resolution photo's at panoramio

2010-12-24T10:16:00.001+01:00

High resolution photo's of our cyclingtrip can be found at panoramio

Een foto van onze fietstocht door Nieuw Zeeland

2008-03-14T21:31:00.000+01:00

Nederlands, English

Here a little photo from our New Zealand bicycle trip.

Hier een kleine foto van onze Nieuw Zeeland fietstocht.

Latest pictures

2005-12-21T13:35:00.000+01:00

Nederlands, English

We did not yet post any pictures of our visit to the last National Parks on our list. So hereby I show you these last pictures:

I also have updated my own home-page to include this new trip. So please visit this site!

We hadden nog niet de foto's van ons bezoek aan de laatste nationale parken van onze lijst. Dus hierbij alsnog deze foto's:

Ik heb ook mijn home-page bijgewerkt om deze laatste tocht hierin op te nemen. Dus bezoek mijn home-page ook eens!

A Grand Canyon View

Devils Golfcourse (Dead Valley N.P.)

Angels Landing Ascent (Zion N.P.)

Sequoia Trees

Yosemite Canyon view

Arrived in Reno

At home again

2005-10-07T13:32:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Last sunday (2-10-2005) we arrived by airplane at Amsterdam airport, where we were welcomed by our fathers. This is then the end of an incredible adventure!

After Zion Nat'l Park we did cycle further to St. George (just above Las Vegas). Because we did not have that many days left and we needed to be in Reno on time for our flight home, we rented a car here. With this car we then first drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Here we stayed for the night in a luxe cabin (there was exactly 1 left for us). The next day we went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and after that by the Hoover Dam to Las Vegas. In Las vegas we visited the Stratosphere Tower. After this we spend a night at a campsite within Dead valley Nat'l Park (it even rained that night (it almost never rains there!)). We spend one day drive through this park (we visited de lowest point within America (Badwater), The Devils Golf Course, The Racetrack and The Dunes). Further we traveled via Sequoia Nat'l Park (Biggest tree of the world) and Kings Canyon Nat'l Park to Yosemite Nat'l Park. We arrived exactly 1 day before we needed to fly home in Reno, Nevada. Here we find bike boxes for transporting our bicycles back home at the airport and at a bike shop. We then fly the next day (30-9-2005) from Reno to Seattle. From Seattle we fly via Washington D.C. to Amsterdam, where we sunday morning (2-10-2005) at 6:30 hour landed.

In total we made about 4000 photo's, which all need to be edited and from which we will make a big photo book. The complete trip has been an incredible experience and a dream has come true!

Afgelopen zondag (2-10-2005) zijn we aangekomen met het vliegtuig op Schiphol, waar we werden afgehaald door onze vaders. Dit is dan het einde van een ongelovelijk avontuur!

Na Zion Nat'l park zijn we nog verder gefietst naar St. George (vlak boven Las Vegas). Omdat we nog weinig dagen over hadden en toch optijd in Reno moesten zijn, hebben we hier een auto gehuurd. Met deze auto zijn we dan eerst naar de noordkant van de Grand Canyon gereden. Hier hebben we luxe overnacht in een cabin (er was er precies nog 1 vrij voor ons). De volgende dag zijn we naar de zuidkant van de Grand Canyon gereden en daarna via de Hoover Dam naar Las Vegas. In Las Vegas hebben we nog de Stratosphere Tower bezocht. Hierna hebben we nog een nacht op een camping in Dead Valley Nat'l Park doorgebracht (het regende zelfs die nacht (het regent er anders zowat nooit!)). Hierna hebben we nog een dag rondgereden door dit park (we bezochten o.a. het laagste punt in America (Badwater), The Devils Golf Course, The Racetrack en The Dunes). Verder zijn we via Sequoia Nat'l Park (grootste boom in de wereld) en Kings Canyon Nat'l Park naar Yosemite Nat'l Park gereden. We waren dan precies 1 dag voor ons vertrek met het vliegtuig in Reno. Hier vinden we op de luchthaven en bij een fietsenhandel fietsdozen om onze fietsen terug te kunnen vervoeren. We vliegen dan de volgende dag (30-9-2005) vanaf Reno naar Seattle. Van Seattle vliegen we via Washington D.C. naar Amsterdam, waar we zondagochtend (2-10-2005) om ongeveer 6:30 uur landen.

In totaal hebben we zo'n 4000 foto's gemaakt, die we nog alle moeten bewerken en daarvan een groot fotoboek zullen maken. De totale tocht is een ongelovelijke ervaring geweest en een droom is werkelijkheid geworden!

Reached Zion Nat'l Park

2005-09-23T01:24:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

After battling storms and cycling through beautiful country, here is a new update from our cycling trip. In Moab we stayed another day to wait for the winds to calm down (it was realy stormy!). During this day we visited Canyonlands Nat'l Park by rental car. After this we mounted our bicycles again and cycled to Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument first. Then through Glen Canyon to Capitol Reef Nat'l Park. Through the Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument we reached Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park - an incredible and beautiful park!!!
Now we're in Zion Nat'l Park, which we'll explore more extensively tomorrow.

Na het doorworstelen van hevige stormen en het fietsen door een schitterend landschap, hebben we hier een nieuwe update van onze fietstocht. We hebben in Moab nog een extra dag doorgebracht omdat we moesten wachten totdat de stormachtige wind iets was gekalmeerd. Gedurende deze dag hebben we het Canyonlands Nat'l Park met een huurauto bezocht. Hierna hebben we weer de fiets gepakt en zijn we eerst naar Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument gefietst. Daarna zijn we door Glen Canyon naar Capitol Reef Nat'l Park gereden. Door het Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument heen zijn we naar Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park, een ongelovelijk mooi park, gegaan.
Nu zijn we in Zion Nat'l Park, welke we morgen uitgebreid zullen verkennen.

Deadhorse Point State Park

Canyonlands Nat'l Park - Needles

Natural Bridges Nat'l Monument

Glen Canyon

Calf Creek Falls

Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park

Canyonlands Nat'l Park - Island in the Sky

Capitol Reef Nat'l Park

Reached Moab (Utah)

2005-09-11T01:40:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Since our last report we've been travelling through some very beautiful parks:

Yellowstone National Park: A really beautiful park, specially the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River and the Grand Prismatic Spring are incredible!!!

Grand Teton National Park: Has very nice views on the Teton Mountain Range.

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area: We camped within the Firehole Canyon; beautiful!!!

Dinosaur National Monument: A visitor center build around a hill side with dinosaur bones in it.

Colorado National Monument: We also camped within this park. A beautiful climb along the red colored rock face to get into the park.

Arches National Park: Many arches of rock, specially the Delicate Arch is beautiful.

Between Teton National Park and Arches National Park we took a rental car, because we're a bit behind schedule (we want to reach Reno, before the 30th of this month). We drove with the car to Moab and there started to cycle again; first into Arches National Park.

We had some incredibly beautiful scenery along our total trip. This trip already is one of our greatest trips!!!

Sinds ons laatste bericht zijn we door enige mooie parken gereisd:

Yellowstone National Park: een werkelijk schitterend park, speciaal de Lower Falls (waterval) van de Yellowstone River en de Grand Prismatic Spring (warme bron) zijn ongelovelijk mooi!!!

Grand Teton National Park: Heeft mooie uitzichten op de Teton Mountain Range.

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area: We hebben in de Firehole Canyon gekampeerd; wonderschoon!!!

Dinosaur National Monument: Een visitor center dat om een kant van een heuvel is gebouwd, waarin een heleboel dinosaurus botten zitten.

Colorado National Monument: We hebben ook in dit park gekampeerd. Een mooie klim langs een rode rotswand om het park binnen te komen.

Arches National Park: Veel stenen bogen, speciaal de Delicate Arch is schitterend.

Tussen Teton National Park en Arches National Park hebben we gereisd met een gehuurde auto, omdat we een klein beetje op moeten schieten willen we Reno voor de 30ste van deze maand nog halen. We zijn met de auto naar Moab gereden en vanaf daar zijn we weer gaan fietsen; eerst het Arches National Park in.

We zijn al door veel ongelovelijke mooie omgevingen gereisd tijdens onze total trip! Deze reis is nu al een geweldige beleving!

Lower falls of the Yellowstone river

Ojo caliente hot spring

Old Faithful

Teton mountain range

Rental car

Firehole canyon

Arches National Park

Delicate arch

Arches National Park

Reached West Yellowstone (Montana)

2005-09-04T02:00:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

A week has passed after our last message. But in this week we cycled a lot of miles/kilometers:

We left Canada and cycled into Montana, U.S.A. The crossing of the border took us only half an hour (we needed to fill in a new visa-waiver form).

We cycled across the going-to-the-sun road in Glacier National Park. A very nice road, crossing the Logan Pass. Specially the going downhill after the pass, we were cycling along the walls of the mountains with a great view also!

We cycled all the way south to the entrance on Yellowstone National Park (which we'll visit extensively tomorrow). We cycled through many beautiful national forests and through mountains and valleys.

We get a lot of support along the way from the local people. They even asked us if they could buy our t-shirts (we made our own tour-shirts for our trip)! This is all super!

Een week is al weer voorbij sinds ons laatste bericht. Maat in deze week hebben we dan ook wel veel mijlen/kilometers gefietst:

We zijn Canada uit en Montana, U.S.A. ingereden. Het passeren van de grens koste ons maar een half uurtje (we moesten een nieuw visa-waiver formulier invullen).

We zijn over de going-to-the-sun road gefietst in Glacier National Park. Een erg mooie weg, waarbij de Logan Pass werd gepasseerd. Speciaal de snelle afdaling was spectaculair; fietsend langs de bergwand met een geweldig uitzicht!

We zijn de gehele weg naar het zuiden tot de ingang van Yellowstone National Park gefietst (we gaan het park morgen uitgebreid bezoeken). Onderweg zijn we door meerdere mooie National Forests (bossen) en door bergen en vallei-en gefietst.

Onderweg vinden we veel support van de (lokale) mensen die we ontmoeten. Er wordt zelfs gevraagd of we onze t-shirts willen verkopen (we hebben, zoals elk jaar, speciale t-shirts gemaakt voor onze fietstocht)! Dit is alles een geweldige ervaring!

Crossing the border into the USA

Chief mountain

Entering Glacier National Park

Going-to-the-sun road

Far away from home?

Entering Yellowstone National Park

Latest photo's added...

2005-08-27T17:48:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Yesterday we couldn't add any pictures, but today we can, so enjoy...

Gisteren konden we geen foto's toevoegen aan ons verhaal, maar vandaag lukt dat wel. Dus geniet...

Jasper National Parl

On the Athabasca Glacier

Banff National Park

Through Kananaskis Country

Crossing the Highwood Pass

Rainy day with snow on top of mountains

Crypt Lake Trail cliff

Pat of Pat's in Waterton repairing our bikes, Thanks Pat!

Waterton Lakes National Park entry

Reached Waterton Lake (Canada)

2005-08-27T02:07:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

We're still in Canada. We're now in the Waterton Lakes National Park. Fred's bicycle chain was too worn, which inhibited cycling anymore. So we drove into the park and the Waterton Lake village. There at Pat's we ordered new parts for both our bikes (Jan Dirk's chain also was starting to wear out). This meant staying at least another day within the village, because the parts needed to be ordered and then installed. During this day we hiked de famous Crypt Lake Trail, which was very nice to do.
After the bikes are fixed we'll cross the border into the U.S.A. at Chief Mountain and then we'll take another famous and beautiful road; the going-to-the-sun road (through Glacier National Park). We'll tell you all about this within our next message.

We zijn nog steeds in Canada. We zijn nu in de Waterton Lakes National Park. Fred zijn fietsketting was zo erg versleten, dat hij geen kracht meer kon zetten en bleef doortrappen. Dus zijn we het park ingereden en naar het dorpje Waterton Lake gereden. Hier hebben we bij Pat's nieuwe onderdelen voor onze beide fietsen besteld (Jan Dirk zijn fietsketting was ook al aan het slijten). Dit betekende dat we minstens nog een dag in Waterton Lake moesten blijven, want de onderdelen moesten besteld worden en daarna nog worden geinstalleerd. Gedurende deze extra (rust)dag zijn we het beroemde Crypt Lake Trail opgegaan; een mooie trektocht waarbij we eerst een boottocht namen om bij het beginpunt van de trail te komen.
Als de fietsen gerepareerd zijn, dan zullen we de grens naar Amerika bij Chief Mountain passeren. Daarna zullen we de beroemde en erg mooie going-to-the-sun weg nemen (dwars door Glacier National Park). Hierover zullen we in ons volgend bericht alles vertellen...

Reached Pincher Creek (Canada)

2005-08-25T00:44:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

We cycled through the National Parks Jasper and Banff, which were incredible beautiful! We stood on top of the Athabascan Glacier, cycled accross the highest pass of Canada (Highwood Pass, 2206 m.), cycled through the Kananaskis Country and enjoyed the incredible beautiful surroundings of the Rocky Mountains! This morning when we woke up and exited the tent, it was only 4 degrees Celcius and the was lot of snow on top of the mountains. A realy beautiful sight. Today we passed the 5000 km cycling distance. Tomorrow we expect to cross the border into America. So in total: Our trip so far can be summarised as one realy incredible beautiful and great experience!

We zijn door de Nationale Parken Jasper en Banff gefietst. Dit was echt een geweldige tocht door the Canadese Rocky Mountains. We hebben boven op de Athabasca Gletscher gestaan, over de hoogste pass van Canada gefietst (Highwood Pass, 2206 m.), door de Kananaskis Country gefietst en van de ongelovelijk mooie omgeving van de Rocky Mountains genoten! Vannochtend toen we opstonden en de tent uit kwamen was het 4 graden Celcius en lag er hopen sneeuw op de bergen. Een werkelijk fantastisch gezicht. Vandaag zijn we bovendien de 5000 km fietsafstand gepasseerd. Morgen verwachten we de grens naar Amerika over te fietsen. Dus in totaal: onze tocht kan nu worden samengevat als 1 werkelijk ongelovelijk mooie and geweldige ervaring!!!

Reached Jasper (Alberta, Canada)

2005-08-19T00:15:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

We've reached the touristic town of Jasper in Alberta, Canada. Yes, we crossed the border of British Columbia into Alberta (losing one hour of time). We're also now in the National Park Jasper. We crossed the Yellowhead Pass (1131 m.) and are now turning on to the Icefields Parkway south towards Banff.
Today we've taken a day off to explore Jasper. This morning we first took the cable tram up to mount Whistler, and walked there all the way up to the summit.

We hebben het toeristische dorp Jasper in Alberta, Canada bereikt. Ja, we zijn hierbij de grens van British Columbia naar Alberta overgestoken (we verloren hierbij een uurtje (de klok 1 uur vooruit)). We zijn nu ook in Het Nationaal Park Jasper. We zijn de Yellowhead Pass (1131 m.) overgestoken en zullen nu op de Icefields Parkway richting Banff gaan fietsen.
Vandaag hebben we een rustdag genomen, zodat we Jasper kunnen verkennen. Vanochtend zijn we eerst met de Kabeltram de berg Whistler op gegaan, en het pad naar de top van deze berg beklommen.

Cycling friends

Farm land scenery

Rainy day

High mountain road

The Great Divide

Welcome to Alberta

Climbing mount Whistler

Reached Burns Lake (Canada)

2005-08-12T01:12:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Still on the Yellowhead Highway, we're now in Burns Lake. The scenery has gradually changed to agriculture with haystacks and cows. Traffic passing us is getter denser as well, lots of logging trucks and RV's.

Luckily the weather is still favorable, we're really catching a tan here!

Nog steeds op de Yellowhead Highway, zijn we nu in Burns Lake. Het landschap om ons heen is steeds meer gecultiveerd, met hooibalen en koeien op het veld. Het verkeer dat ons voorbij raast, veel trucks met boomstammen en RV's, wordt drukker.

Gelukkig is het weer ons goed gezind, we worden echt bruin!

On the road, side by side

We're on the Yellowhead Hwy, heading east

Fred on the Cassiar Hwy

Black bear crossing

Steep grades, trucks must check their brakes

Reached Smithers (Canada)

2005-08-10T22:08:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Just after we left Bell II, we saw a black bear just crossing the road just in front of us. It just looked at us and we just looked at him. And then he slowly walked on. WOW!!!!. That's was a very nice and interesting experience!
Now we've reached Smithers and are now cycling on the Yellowhead Highway towards Jasper. The road is slowly climbing towards Jasper. It runs through some beautiful mountain scenery with some nice glaciers.

Vlak nadat we Bell II hadden verlaten zien we een black bear de weg oversteken vlak voor ons. Hij keek ons even aan en wij bekeken hem. En dan liep hij langzaam weer verder. Wauw!!!!. Dat was een interessante en leuke beleving!
We hebben nu Smithers bereikt en fietsen nu op de Yellowhead Highway richting Jasper. De weg is klimt langzaam richting Jasper. Hij loopt door een mooie bergachtige omgeving met uitzicht op enige gletschers.

Reached Bell II (Canada)

2005-08-07T01:27:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Finally here a new update of our cycling trip through North America. We've not been able to write an update earlier, because all the villages we cycled through did not have any internet access.
Right after finishing our last report (the moment we left the library) we found that Jan Dirk rear tire was flat: All those gravel roads without any problem and within a village we get a flat tire!? Though this was quickly repaired.
We cycled a long way on the Alaska Highway and now we've left Yukon (Canada) and are cycling south on the Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37) through British Columbia (Canada). This is a very beautiful road with some gravel sections, but mainly paved. This road goes right through the Cassiar Mountains.
Mainly the weather has been nice, but the last two days we've seen some rain and storm (with the wind against us).
So now we've arrived at Bell II and we expect to require at least another three days to travel down the Cassiar Highway and then we'll be on the Yellowhead Highway.

We've met some other cyclists going up north (the other way). Some even started in Argentinia (and are now one and a half year on the road)!

Thanks for all the e-mails we receive! We're both in good health and doing well!

Hier is dan eindelijk een update van onze fietstocht door Noord America. Het was niet mogelijk om dit eerder te doen, omdat alle dorpjes waar we door fietsten geen internettoegang hadden.
Gelijk nadat we ons vorige verhaal hadden verzonden (op het moment dat we de bibliotheek verlieten) vonden we Jan Dirk zijn fiets met een lekke band; Alle gravelwegen zonder problemen, maar midden in een dorpje krijgen we een lekke band!? Gelukkig was deze snel geplakt.
We hebben een lang stuk over de Alaska Highway gefietst, maar we hebben nu Yukon (Canada) verlaten en fietsen zuidwaarts op de Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37) door British Columbia (Canada). Dit is een erg mooie weg met enige gravel-secties, maar het grootste gedeelte is geasfalteerd. Deze weg gaat dwars door het Cassiar Gebergte.
Over het algemeen hebben we zeer goed weer, maar de laatste twee dagen hebben we enige regen en storm (waarbij we de wind natuurlijk tegen hadden) gehad.
Nu zijn we dan aangekomen in Bell II en verwachten nog minsten drie dagen op de Cassiar Highway te fietsen en dan op de Yellowhead Highway te zijn.

We hebben onderweg ook nog andere fietsers ontmoet die naar het noorden (de andere kant op dan wij) gingen. Sommige van hen zijn zelfs gestart in Argentinie (en zijn nu al anderhalf jaar onderweg)!

Bedankt voor alle e-mails die we mogen ontvangen! We zijn beiden in goede gezondheid en alles gaat goed!

Repairing the flat tire

Innerview of the tent

Campfire at camping site

Canadian cyclists (started in Argentinia)

Closing storm
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Do we go downhill here???

Reached Haines Junction (Canada)

2005-07-28T01:28:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Today we've reached Haines Junction in Canada. Yes, we're now in Canada! After our last report we've crossed the border between Alaska and Canada and also now cycled more than 2000 km already.
The Alaska Highway we're cycling on now, should be paved al the way, but we found that there are still a lot of section that are with gravel. Also the wind has been blowing against us. So in all we've not been cycling as fast and easy as we would have liked to, but we're still getting forward very well and have now already reached Haines Junction. And we're planning for tomorrow to reach Whitehorse.
The surroundings where the Alaska Highway goes through are very beautiful and the highway runs next to the Kluane National Park, which is also very nice. So we're enjoying some incredible views during our cycling trip!

Vandaag hebben we het dorpje Haines Junction in Canada bereikt. Ja, we zijn nu in Canada! Na ons laatste verslag hebben we de grens tussen Alaska en Canada gepasseerd en hebben we nu ook al meer dan 2000 km gefietst.
De Alaska Highway (de highway waarop we nu fietsen) zou geheel geasfalteerd moeten zijn, maar we komen toch nog heel wat stukken met gravel tegen. Ook hebben we last van een stevige tegenwind. Daardoor kunnen we niet zo snel en gemakkelijk fietsen als we wel zouden willen, maar toch komen we redelijk goed vooruit en hebben we nu zelfs Haines Junction al bereikt. Morgen willen we zeker Whitehorse bereiken.
De omgeving waar de Alaska Highway door loopt is zeer mooi. En de highway loopt ook langs het Kluane National Park, welke ook zeer mooi is. Dus genieten we tijdens onze fietstocht van vele ongelovelijk mooie uitzichten!

Crossing the Canadian border

Cycled 2000 km total now!

View at Destruction Bay

Reflections on Kluane Lake

Kluane National Park

Reached Border City (Alaska)

2005-07-24T07:11:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

We're now at Border City, 3 miles before the Alaska-Canadian border.
Today we cycled about 104 km, and we had a very warm day. We cycled today through the hills that border the Tanana River, which meant that the road went up and down a lot. Tomorrow we'll be entering Canada...

We zijn nu gearriveerd in Border City, 3 mijlen voor de Alaska-Canadese grens.
Vandaag hebben we ongeveer 104 km gefietst. We hadden vandaag een zeer warme dag. We fietsten vandaag door de heuvels die grenzen aan de Tanana River, wat betekende dat de weg veel op en neer ging. Morgen gaan we dus Canada in...

View of Tanana River.

Climbing the hills...

Reached Tok (Alaska)

2005-07-23T01:49:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Today we've reached Tok. We expect it will take about two days to reach the Canadian border. The last days we really have beautiful weather; clear skies with a warm sun.

Thanks for all the messages that we have received from you all by the internet, thanks a lot!

Vandaag hebben we Tok bereikt. We verwachten nog twee dagen nodig te hebben om de Canadese grens te bereiken. De laatste paar dagen hebben werkelijk mooi weer; wolkeloze hemel met een warme zon.

Bedankt voor alle berichten die we hebben mogen ontvangen over het internet, ontzettend bedankt!

Wild camping.

Reached Delta Junction (Alaska).

2005-07-21T02:43:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

After a long time we're able to update our internet diary again. We're now at Delta Junction and we're able to update this diary in the local library. We've cycled the Parks Highway from Fairbanks to Denali National Park. At Denali we cycled the park road, which gave us some incredible sights and we also saw some wildlife again (bears, caribou and chipmunks). After our visit to Denali we continued on towards Cantwell and the Denali Highway. This Denali Highway is a gravel road along the Alaska Range, which again took us through some incredible beautiful surroundings! Though the gravel road was very bad and we could not get a high average speed on this road. We passed the McLarren Pass (second highest pass of Alaska) and at the end of the Denali Highway we cycled north again on the Richardson highway (accross the Isabel Pass) towards Delta Junction. On this highway today we saw some bisons. Now we will be driving on the Alaska Highway towards the Canadian border.

Below you'll find the latest pictures of our trip:

Na een lange tijd kunnen we nu eindelijk weer ons internet dagboek vernieuwen. We zijn nu in Delta Junction en kunnen in de plaatselijke bibliotheek ons dagboek uitbreiden met het laatste nieuws. We zijn over de Parks Highway van Fairbanks naar Denali National Park gefietst. In Denali hebben we de Park road gefietst, welke ons enige ongelovelijke vergezichten en natuur (beren, cariboe en eekhoorntjes) te zien gaf. Na ons bezoek aan Denali gingen we verder naar Cantwell en de Denali Highway. Deze Denali Highway is een gravelweg langs de Alaska Range, wat ons door enige werkelijk ongelovelijk mooie omgevingen voerde. Maar de gravelweg was zeer slecht te befietsen (wasbord) en we konden daardoor geen hoge gemiddelde snelheid halen. We passeerden de McLarren Pass (de twee na hoogste pas van Alaska) en aan het einde van de Denali Highway gingen we weer noordwaarts over de Richardson Highway (daarbij over de Isabel Pass) richting Delta Junction. Vandaag zagen we op deze highway nog enige bizons. Nu zullen we onze tocht over de Alaska Highway vervolgen richting de Canadese grens.

Hieronder de laatste foto's van onze tocht:

Denali National Park Sign

Caribou Denali Park Road

Polychrome Pass on Denali Park Road

Denali Highway

Arrived at Delta Junction

Squirrel on bicycle

Mt. McKinley (we're lucky to see McKinley the whole day).

First trip pictures

2005-07-12T00:08:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Today we're taking a rest day in Fairbanks, so we have some time to add pictures to our log (view below)...
Also we added trip statistics to the right side of this log.

Vandaag nemen we een rustdag in Fairbanks, dus hebben we mooi tijd om enige foto's op de weblog te plaatsen (zie hieronder)...
Ook hebben we tour statistieken toegevoegd aan de rechterzijde van dit logboek.

Arctic Circle reached

Climbing the hills after Coldfoot

The muddy road makes cycling difficult

Many steep roads need to be climbed...

A big forest fire made cycling part of road impossible

Finally in civilised world again: Fairbanks, Alaska

2005-07-11T04:34:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

After 720 km we arrived in Fairbanks. We started our cycling trip on the Dalton Highway, a gravel road, which sometimes can be very difficult to cycle. We crossed the highest pass in Alaska (the Atigun Pass (1500 m)) and crossed the Gates of the Arctic National Park. We saw a lot of wildlife (cariboes, grizly bear, chipmunks, fox and eagle). A big forest fire along the Dalton Highway forced us to get a lift past the fires, which were hazardous for our health. We're ok and enjoying ourselfs very much; we're cycling through very beautiful surroundings.
Now we arrived in Fairbanks and on paved roads (since the last 100 km) again. We'll be heading south to Denali National Park.

Na 720 km zijn we geariveerd in Fairbanks. We begonnen onze fietstocht op de Dalton Highway, een gravelweg, die soms zeer zwaar te befietsen is. We zijn over de hoogste pas in Alaska (de Atigun Pass (1500 m)) gefietst en door de Gates of the Arctic National Park. We hebben veel wild gezien (cariboes, een grizly beer, eekhoorntjes, vos en arend). Een grote bosbrand heeft er voor gezorgd dat we een stukje moesten liften, omdat de vuren gevaarlijk voor onze gezondheid waren. We zijn in goede gezondheid en hebben een GEWELDIGE tijd; we fietsen door ontzettend mooie omgevingen.
Nu zijn we aangekomen in Fairbanks en weer op geasfalteerde wegen (sinds de laatste 100 km). We gaan nu verder onderweg naar het zuiden; eerst naar Denali National Park.

About 1 day before start...

2005-06-29T12:10:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

Still only about one day before we're starting our trip. Next friday morning we'll be leaving the Netherlands from airport Schiphol (Amsterdam) towards North America (Prudhoe Bay). This last day we'll be packing all our lugage, boxing our bike and making our final preparations. Our next message will probably be from Alaska. We'll try to often add another message to this page during our trip.

So come back often to this page to follow our progress!!!

Nog maar ongeveer 1 dag te gaan voordat we nu werkelijk met onze tocht beginnen. Komende vrijdag vliegen we vanaf luchthave Schiphol richting North America (naar Prudhoe Bay). Deze laatste dag pakken we onze bagage in, zorgen dat onze fietsen goed in de fietsdozen wordt opgeborgen en maken we de laatste voorbereidingen.
Zeer waarschijnlijk komt ons volgende bericht uit Alaska. We zullen proberen tijdens onze tocht zo vaak mogelijk een bericht op deze pagina achter te laten.

Dus vergeet niet om nog vaker deze web-pagina te bezoeken, zodat je onze voortgang kunt volgen!!!

Only 1 month before start of trip

2005-06-01T14:50:00.000+02:00

Nederlands, English

(From this post on I'll be posting the progress in Dutch and English, to also allow my dutch readers to follow our trip).

Only still one month (30 days) before we'll start our trip. These last months we've done a lot of work in preparing our trip:

We performed extensive maintenance on our bikes; replaced front chainrings and rear cassettes sprockets (Jan Dirk even replaced the complete crank set on his bike). We also got new tires for our bikes, so the first few kilometers we won't have any problems with these. And Fred got a new front carrier.

We collected cardboard boxes to be used for the transport of our bikes on the planes. The boxes were not as solid as we hoped when we received them from the bike shop, so we used a lot of tape to strengthen these boxes.

We used water repellant spray to prepare our cycle bags and tent for the rain.

Collected any missing items on our pack-list.

The last few months we also have been making some small cycling trips to get used to sitting on a saddle for longer periods.

So now we're reasonable ready to go on our trip. We'll be doing some training cycling trips until we'll leave for North America. We both are looking forward to the start of our trip...

Nog maar 1 maand (30 dagen) tot we vertrekken op onze tocht. Deze voorgaande maanden hebben we veel tijd besteed aan de voorbereiding:

We hebben onze fietsen een uitgebreide onderhoudsbeurt gegeven; we hebben de voor en achter tandwielen vervangen (Jan Dirk heeft zelfs het complete crank-stel van zijn fiets vervangen). Ook hebben we de buitenbanden vervangen, zodat we zeker zijn dat we hiermee geen problemen krijgen de eerste paar kilometers. Fred heeft ook een nieuwe voordrager gemonteerd.

We hebben kartonnen dozen bij de fietsenmaker opgehaald. Deze dozen zullen we gebruiken om onze fietsen in te transporteren met het vliegtuig. De dozen waren niet zo stevig en enigszins beschadigd toen we deze kregen. Hiervoor hebben we veel tape gebruikt om de dozen te verstevigen.

We hebben met waterafstotende spray de tent en onze fietstassen geimpregneerd, zodat we geen last zullen hebben van een mogelijke regenbui.

We hebben alle spullen die we nog op de paklijst misten verzameld.

Deze laatste maanden hebben we ook al enige fietstochten gemaakt om alvast te wennen aan het voor langere tijd verblijven op een zadel.

Dus nu zijn we redelijk gereed voor het begin van onze tocht. De komende dagen zullen we nog wat training fietstochtjes maken. We kijken beiden uit naar het begin van onze tocht...

18000 km. till now.

2005-04-10T11:08:00.000+02:00

All cycling trips combined, we've cycled about 18000 km till now. This trip we expect to cycle about 9000 km through North America. So this is half of the total distance we have cycled during our previous trips.

Cycling trip records...

2005-03-04T11:36:00.000+01:00

All kinds of cycling trip records:
Copied from BikeTrip

Across Canada : 27 days, 5 hours and 30 minutes
Alone, fully geared and unsupported. That's a total of 7089Km for an average of 260,3km per day. Approved by the Guiness book of world records. Check out Erik's site.
Record made by Erik Straarup on the 1999-07-25.

Around Australia : 55 days 17 hours and 8min.
Eugen beat the previous record of 57 days around Australia. Solo, no support.
Record made by Eugen Schilter on the 2004-09-25.

Around Australia (Team) : 19 days, 7 hours and 15 mins
Through all seven state capitals, the team had eight riders, (four Army and four civilian) with one rider on the road at all times.
Record made by Bruce Hopkins on the 2004-09-01.

Coldest temperature : -47°c
In Greenland during the winter in 1992.
Record made by Andy Heßberg on the 1992-02-01.

Fastest 100 000m vertical climbing : 106 continuous days
Fully geared during a trip from Chile across Bolivia, Peru to Ecuador
Record made by Beat Heim on the 2002-01-11.

Flat tires : 18 in 1 day
In China/Nepal in 1996. That's what I'd call a shity day ! Check out Corax's site.
Record made by Janne Corax

Flat tires (2) : 503 on 150000km
During their trip around the world (between 1980 and 1994).
Record made by Françoise & Claude Hervé

Highest amounts of bribes : 75 US dollars and 20 Euro
Crossing Trans-Dniestria (35km) costed me 75 US dollars and 20 Euro's in bribes.
Record made by Ivo Miesen

Highest Daily Distance (fully geared) : 379Km
Fully geared on asphalt in Sweden.
Record made by Janne Corax

Highest daily distance (no gear) : 701km
From Sioux Falls to canadian border across all of Minnesota (23.5 hrs). Check out Tom's website.

Record made by Thomas Laussermair on the 2004-09-18.

Highest ride : 5685m
kunlun mountains, close to kerriya shankou/pass. Fully geared.
Record made by Janne Corax and Nadine Saulnier.

Highest Speed : 100 Km/H (62.5mph)
On my fully loaded Trek 520 touring bike I hit a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62.5 mph) on a descent from Tehachapi California to the Mojave Desert. This was in June 1997. Of course I had a strong tailwind. This area is famous for strong winds. At the top of the descent I rode through a huge array of windmills that generate electricity equal to a nuclear power plant.
Record made by Wayne Estes on the 1997-06-01.

Hottest Temperature : +53°c
In Mauritania near Choum and Atar (in the shade of course !)
Record made by Heinz Stucke

Longest bike trip : 40 years and still going
Heinz Stucke has been biking for fourty years non stop now. 1995 to 99 Guinness Book of Records: "Most Travelled Man in History"
Check out his story...
Record made by Heinz Stucke on the 1962-11-01.

Longest distance (Audax style) : 840km
Ivo Miesen biked 840km with audax-gear as a
max (1 hour of accumulated sleep over that stretch).
Record made by Ivo Miesen

Longest distance on same bicycle : 335 000km
during 28 years !
Record made by Heinz Stucke

Longest period without seeing a human being : 14 days
Between Sumxi (Tibet/Xizang) and Pulu (Xinjiang). Check out Corax's site.
Record made by Janne Corax and Nadine Saulnier.
on the 1999-08-01.

Longest ride under heavy rain : 8 hours
In Bahia, Brasil
Record made by Dai, Saivani and Ara

Longest take off in the morning : 5 hours
It was raining outside and we had to wait for the sun. We were in someone backyard moreover ! It was in Denmark.
Record made by Alexandre Lagache & Stephen Shapiro on the 1998-07-09.

Longest turn back for forgotten gear : 90km
After a 90km ride, Stephen suddenly realizes that he forgot the tent poles and stakes in our hotel in Belfast. We drop all our gear at someone's place and rode back to pick it up. Spent the night in the hotel too...
Record made by Alexandre Lagache & Stephen Shapiro on the 1997-07-01.

Longest wear of underpants : 72 days
the reason for this madness was the cold in the himalayas, no fun to take off any clothing when it is -10 to -20C all the time... Check out Corax's site for a picture of his leg after these 72 days !!!
Record made by Janne Corax

Lowest number of flats : 0 in 16 months
During his "Schizotour". Check out Corax's site.
Record made by Janne Corax

Lowest ride : -396m USL
In the dead sea, Jordania
Record made by Serge Leret.

Most aggressive dog : 35km
A dog in the Qamdo area (China) chased Corax for 35 km ! In Spring 1996. Check out Corax's site.
Record made by Janne Corax on the 1996-06-01.

North Cape - Gibraltar : 18 days, 2 hours and 33 minutes
Alone, fully geared and unsupported. That's 5476,98 km so an average of 302,5 km a day. Approved by Guinness Book of World Records. Check out Erik's site.
Record made by Erik Straarup on the 2001-06-01.

Oldest bike tripper : 73 years old on 'Le tour du Canada'Tour du Canada

Shortest bike trip : 5 km
From Canterbury harbour to 5 Km after Canterbury harbour. Rear rack broke, decided to hitchike to Scotland instead.
Record made by Alain Lescaut on the 1992-07-10.

Shortest bike trip (2) : 9 miles (14 km)
In October 2000, I cycled the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail in Spain and covered 9 miles on one of those days. And yes, I was quite embarrassed when I saw the hikers at the end of the day asking me, "What are you doing here?"

Record made by Tony Kim on the 2000-10-01.

Shortest Day Ride : 30 Km
I have no excuse for that one. We were both tired I guess. Happened in Southern France.
Record made by Alexandre Lagache & Jean-Paul Benavides on the 1999-08-05.

Slowest ride on a truck : 35km in 12h
Considering truck rides are a necessary part of long bike trips... Ara had to take one in Bolivia during his 10 000km bike trip through South America. He was actually lucky because it takes 4 days to do the same during the rain season. Check out his website.
Record made by Ara Masllovet on the 2002-00-00.

Youngest bike tripper : 5 weeks
Manon Hervé was conceived and born while their parents were doing a bike trip around the world. She kept on touring with them for 6 years...
Record made by Manon Hervé on the 1998-09-12.

Youngest Tourers : Tristan (7) and Stefan (10)
Tristan and Stefan courageously rode their bikes on a 1096km bike trip from Golden, BC to Penticton BC for 3 weeks in 2002. More details on their website.
Record made by Tristan and Stefan on the 2002-07-01.

Highest Roads In North America

2005-03-03T15:16:00.000+01:00

Highest Road In The USA
Mount Evans Byway, Colorado.

Highest Paved Through Road In The USA
Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
(We plan to cycle this road).

Highest Unpaved Through Road In The USA
The highest unpaved through road in the USA (and possibly in North America) is the Mosquito Pass between Leadville and Fairplay, Colorado. The summit of the pass is 13,186 feet.

Highest Road In Canada
The highest drivable pass in Canada is Highwood Pass (7239 ft. / 2205 m.). This road is Highway 40 in Kananaskis County, Alberta (southwest of Calgary).

There may well be paved or unpaved spur roads or four-wheel drive roads in the Canadian Rockies or in the Yukon which reach greater heights?

Our bikes

2005-02-25T10:21:00.000+01:00

The bikes we will us on our adventure are bikes from Giant. Jan Dirk rides the "Giant Yukon" and Fred rides the "Giant ATX 860". Both are very sturdy bikes which are very well to ride on the bad back roads we take and with the heavy luggage we have with us.

More information about these bikes can also be found on our website Cycling Holidays under the "about us" item.

Added new pictures to webpage...2001 & 2004

2005-02-21T11:09:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly updating our Cycling Holidays webpage. I've just added the pictures to the 2001 Alaska tours description and to our latest tour, 2004 Ireland. Please have a look and enjoy the new photo's. Here two examples of the pictures you'll find there:

Race accross America

2005-02-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

I just saw the documentary of the "Race Across America" on the BBC. WOW! What an incredible race this is; 3000+ miles within 1 or 2 weeks! What achievement to finish this race!

For comparison:
We expect to do about 9000 km in three months for the North America Adventure.

Added new pictures to webpage...1993 & 1997

2005-01-31T11:40:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly updating our Cycling Holidays webpage. I've just added the pictures to the 1993 Benelux & 1997 Norway (North Cape) tours descriptions. Please have a look and enjoy the new photo's.

Added new pictures to webpage...1994 & 1995

2005-01-28T15:54:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly updating our Cycling Holidays webpage. I've just added the pictures to the 1994 & 1995 Great Brittain tours descriptions to complete the webpage for these years. Please don't hesitate to have a look. Here already some examples of the pictures you'll find there:

Added new pictures to webpage...2002

2005-01-26T09:01:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly updating our Cycling Holidays webpage. I've just added the pictures to the 2002 New Zealand tour description to complete the webpage for that year. Please don't hesitate to have a look. Here already some examples of the pictures you'll find there:

Added new pictures to webpage...2003

2005-01-25T14:43:00.000+01:00

I'm constantly updating our Cycling Holidays webpage. I've just added the pictures to the 2003 Canada tour description to complete the webpage for that year. Please don't hesitate to have a look. Here already some examples of the pictures you'll find there:

Airline Baggage Regulation for Bikes

2005-01-22T13:51:00.000+01:00

Because we'll take our own bikes with us for our trip, we'll need to transport them also with us on our flights. But airline companies seem to change their rules for bikes at every moment and with every person you talk to. The current ailine baggage regulations for bikes are listed here. Because we'll fly with USAirways and Alaska Airlines, we'll need to transport our bixes in big boxes. These big boxes are not easy to handle because of their size, but it seems to be regulation (Normally we would use padded bike bags which are much easier to handle). Though we'll leave the boxes at Prudhoe Bay, which will save us weight (because the bags we would take with us the complete trip).

Cooking...

2005-01-18T13:31:00.000+01:00

We always used to cook on camping gas with the Bleuet® 206, which is easy to do. But the only problem with this is that it's not always easy to find the camping gas cartridges, when you just arrived in a strange and different country. So this year we decided to cook with liquid fuel. Liquid fuel should be easier to find. The stove we've chosen for this is the SimmerLite™ from MSR.

This stove is very light (only 240 gram). After seeing a demonstration of this stove we decided this would be the stove for us.

We also bought light cookware; the MSR BlackLite™. Which is only 665 gram, but we'll only take the 2-liter and frypan with us, so we'll have even less weight with us.

The Route... (2)

2005-01-14T11:14:00.000+01:00

For traveling through the U.S.A. we would need a lot of maps if we would like to have cards with a good scale.
Luckely we found digital maps of complete U.S.A. which are not too expensive:
With this 'Back Road Explorer' we only need to print the maps of the route that we require; this way we minimize the paper load which is else required when we would buy all maps seperately.

The route...

2005-01-13T16:13:00.000+01:00

During our cycling trip we'll try to visit as much National Parks as possible. These parks are mentioned in the logo which I previously had posted.

A description of the National Parks in the U.S.A. can be found at http://www.nps.gov/. A complete description of the Canadian National Parks can be found at http://www.pc.gc.ca/progs/np-pn/index_E.asp.

For planning of our route we also used the Milepost. Which is a complete book with all the highways in Alaska and West Canada. It's too heavy to take with us on our trip, but for our preparation it's a great help.

Logo created...

2005-01-13T16:01:00.000+01:00

Every time that we go on a big cycling trip we also create a logo for our trip. Also this time. After some designing this is the result: